The Best Food in One of America's Greatest Culinary Cities -- All Served at This Party

On December 3rd, 2015, a dozen of New York’s most accomplished restaurateurs came together for a night of epically edible proportions. Fest of the Best is our annual ode to these restaurateurs, each of which represent a food category under which they claim top prize, from best dessert (a trio of unbelievable tasty cupcakes) to best lobster roll (what up, Luke’s!) to best Italian (champagne + truffle = a cream sauce for the ages). We went, we ate, we pestered attendees mid-bite about what they were eating, and now we’ve compiled the best highlights:

We could tell you that there were three locally-made ice cream flavors at the frozen station. We could also run down the meaty magic of maple-bacon burgers, 12-hour-smoked pork shoulder, and perfectly cooked filet. Or we could just show you the insanely tasty photos:

Free-Flowing Vino

With so many of our great city’s best chefs under one roof, we thought it’d be cool to grab their dishes and bring them around to the other best chefs to try them out. Think about it: the cupcake lady scarfing sushi, the lobster guy munching on brunch. It’s all mismatched, team-building gold. Here are the best combos:

Ample Hills Creamery eating Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

And before we wrapped up the night, we found an amusing little game: running around, sneaking up on patrons right as their mid-bite only to ask them their best, most descriptive word for that dish. Here are the best adjectives mumbled through full mouths: